Curry Cravings

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Making a tasty curry comes easy to some: my mom, my grandmother, my aunts, and even a few of my enterprising uncles. It does not come easy to me. But, like a good Sri Lankan girl, I'm working on it.

Thankfully, there is a fabulous little store in NYC called Kalustyan's. On their website they call themselves a "landmark for fine specialty foods" and they aren't kidding. I made the trek there this weekend and was awestruck by the rows and rows of hard-to-find ingredients essential for a traditional Sinhalese curry - fresh curry leaves, Ceylon cinnamon sticks, Sri Lankan roasted curry powder (the hot stuff!), lemongrass, coconut milk and a dozen or so other spices. The selection was amazing. I even spotted some jaggery (sugar made from sap of the coconut palm) that I'll be sure to pick up after the supply that I smuggled home after my last Sri Lanka trip dwindles.

The chicken curry I concocted that night was a partial success. It was definitely not as rich as my grandmother's and thankfully not as spicy as my Uncle Ananda's, but it was delicious nonetheless. Eaten along with the mallung (sautéed greens and coconut) and coconut rice that my boyfriend whipped up (he is Sri Lankan at heart), it was a meal any two cooks could be proud of.